Nearly 1 Million Californians Without Insurance Because Of Covered California Communication Problems

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Nearly 1 million Californians are still waiting to get insurance after a communication problem between Covered California and the state and county systems.

About 900,000 Californians who enrolled for Medi-Cal this year are still waiting for their official ID card that will give them eligibility.

The Department of Health Care Services says it has 45 days to process applications once they’ve been submitted. Those who enrolled from October to December were told their coverage would start in January.

But instead, some people’s information got stuck in limbo because of communication issues with the Covered California website.

“With the state’s computer system, and the counties’ computer systems, we’ve worked together for years, decades,” said spokesman Norman Williams. “Covered California is new, so we have to have those computer systems talking to each other and exchanging information, and that’s proven to be kind of a difficult task.”

CBS13 has received several Facebook posts from viewers like Melissa Young who have been affected.

She wrote, “My son’s coverage has been in limbo since February. He has no case worker yet, and every time I call, they say they have fixed the problem and to wait until the first of the following month. Nothing is fixed and I call again. Repeat.”

Williams says some people haven’t been enrolled yet, because they still need to verify their information.

“We’ve mailed letters to them and reached out but we need to get that back before we can enroll them,” he said.

But because of recent technical issues with the Covered California website, he says it’s not clear when anyone still waiting will be officially enrolled.

“We are devoting all the resources we can to make this work and to get them into coverage,” he said. “It’s our top priority right now.”